It appears as though Cal has traded in one offensive guru as their coach for another, as on Tuesday it was reported that Louisiana Tech’s Sonny Dykes is set to take over as head coach over in Berkley.
The news was first reported by FootballScoop.com.
Dykes will come to Cal after three years at Louisiana Tech where he accrued a 22-15 record and built one of the most exciting offenses in college football. Dykes’ Bulldogs team ranked first nationally in 2012 averaging 51.5 points per game, and also ranked second behind only Baylor with 577.9 yards per game as well. Prior to his stint at Louisiana Tech Dykes was Arizona’s offensive coordinator under Mike Stoops and wide receivers coach at Texas Tech under Mike Leach.
Meanwhile at Cal, this is an interesting hire for a program that needed a fresh start after Tedford was fired three weeks ago. To his credit Tedford did accumulate 82 wins in 11 years at the school, but with just one postseason trip in the last three years it appeared to be a time for change.
Either way when Dykes does arrive at Cal, one of the most important decisions he’ll make is at defensive coordinator. It has to be assumed that Dykes will retain his offensive staff (spear-headed by offensive coordinator Tony Franklin), but defensively Louisiana Tech was terrible in 2012, finishing ranked 119th overall in scoring defense (the Bulldogs allowed 38.5 points per game). Cal itself wasn’t much better in 2012, allowing 33 points per contest.
In addition, there is one interesting caveat to Dykes’ decision, and that has to do with Louisiana Tech’s bizarre postseason situation in 2012. The school finished 9-3 overall in the regular season, but did not accept an invite to the Independence Bowl when it was first offered to them. Eventually the bowl game chose to invite Ohio instead and Louisiana Tech was left without a postseason home.
It’s tough to know whether that blunder by the school’s athletic administration led to Dykes’ departure from the school, but it likely didn’t help.
